Monday 28 September 2009

First Academy session of season

The first session for Shropshire Junior Chess Academy takes place this Saturday (3 Oct) at Trinity School, Ford, near Shrewsbury from 10am to 12pm.

The Academy started last season and has already seen its first candidates successfully reach accreditation for the Pawn and Knight levels. The events are a mix of coaching, fun games and competitions.

The Academy is open to under 18s chess players in the county of all abilities. Just turn up on Saturday and get involved.

After the Academy this Saturday there will be the first match for the county junior team against Warwickshire starting at 1.30pm. This season the juniors are taking part in the Under 140 grade section of the Midlands Chess Association competition.

Shropshire Under 18s take on the UK's best

Shropshire juniors took on top teams from around the country in the National Youth Chess Association under 18 event held at Abraham Darby School, Telford on Saturday (26 September).

Although the eight-board team were heavily outgraded in all their four matches, there were some very good individual performances including Nathanael Paul on board 3 (2.5/4); Francis Rooney on board 5 (2/4) and Mark Richards on board 7 (2/4). There was also an under 14 event held on the same day in which Shropshire junior Athar Mehmood played with the Staffordshire team on top board, scoring 3/4 and winning a board prize.

Shropshire U18 team and club: 1. Craig Whitfield (Staffs) 2. Ieuan Fenton (Oswestry) 3. Nathanael Paul (Coddon) 4. Peter Mellor (Coddon) 5. Francis Rooney (Shrewsbury/Church Stretton) 6. Chris Lovejoy (Shrewsbury) 7. Mark Richards (Newport) 8. Matthew Best (Shrewsbury)

Monday 14 September 2009

Revised league fixtures

There have been some changes to the earlier published fixture list. The Calendar of dates on the left has now been updated to show the new fixtures for Shrewsbury and Newport Juniors this season which kicks off next month.

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Official 2009 grades

Shropshire Junior grades 2009

Following some further amendments by ECF in late August these are now the official grades for the 2009-10 season.

Ieuan Fenton (Oswestry) 175
Louis Graham 166
Athar Mehmood (Newport) 133
Nathanael Paul (Coddon) 131
Peter Mellor (Coddon) 125
Francis Rooney (Shrewsbury/Church Stretton) 110
Christopher Lovejoy (Shrewsbury/Church Stretton) 104
Huw Davenport (Newport) 99
Mark Richards (Newport) 98
Jamie Allan (Newport) 97
Matthew Best (Shrewsbury) 95
Henry Graham (Shrewsbury) 90
Jonathan Newey (Shrewsbury) 91
Luke West (Newport) 80
Angelica Dean (Shrewsbury) 72
Joseph Mellor (Coddon) 64
Matthew Mellor (Coddon) 56
Katherine Lovejoy (Shrewsbury) 50

Full list of Shropshire grades here - http://rutterchess.741.com/Grades_2009.htm